From custodian to teacher: First-year Coakley instructor at Harlingen CISD a hit with students, teachers

HARLINGEN — “Parch.”

The clicking of green bingo pieces on the paper “tic-tic-tic” snapped like tiny sparks as the sixth-graders in Victor Leal’s class at Coakley Middle School filled spaces on their bingo pages.

Leal, who teaches reading classes to students with dyslexia, spun a wheel projected on a screen and called out “Screech.”

Again the students rushed to fill the squares on their bingo pages.

“Bingo!” a student said a few words later, after which Leal handed her a snack.

Leal, 31, is completing his first year of teaching with high marks from teachers, administrators and students.

Less than a decade ago, the 2010 graduate of Rio Hondo High School was cutting grass and mopping floors at Coakley. Many people are talking about his delightful trajectory from custodian, to paraprofessional and now successful reading teacher. He’s also a forensics and robotics coach for Afterschool Centers on Education.

In a very short time he has constructed a rich latticework of experiences to empower his capacity as both a trusted teacher to his students and a respected colleague in the Harlingen school district.

“I worked myself up to lead custodian at Treasure Hills Elementary,” he said. “I spent three years with Mr. Roland Ingram.”

His original plan was to join the U.S. Border Patrol. That was not in God’s plan, he says, but while engaging with the students and faculty and administrators as a Treasure Hills custodian, he realized what he really wanted to do was teach.

“I loved every bit of working there as a custodian,” he said. “It really did help me shape going further within the district because I learned how the school district functioned from the foundation up to our principals.”

Less than a decade ago, the 2010 graduate of Rio Hondo High School was cutting grass and mopping floors at Coakley. Many people are talking about his delightful trajectory from custodian, to paraprofessional and now successful reading teacher.

Through his multi-layered tracks to his career he performed at all levels of education — elementary, middle school and high school — as a substitute teacher, paraprofessional and ACE instructor.

“It’s a blessing because I was able to connect with sixth-graders all the way up to high school students,” said Leal, who also teaches reading class at Harlingen High School South.

The passion and quality of his teaching reveals itself in the enthusiasm of his students.

“It’s very, very fun,” said Ruben Garcia, 12, adding that he finds reading more enjoyable than he did at the beginning of the year.

“You see those binders over there?” he said, pointing to a shelf.

“We write in them,” he said. “We read a book called Babe about a pig that wants to become a dog.”

Classmate Abel De La Cruz: “I used to be kind of shy but I am really good at reading now.”

Leal took over the class in September after the school year had already begun and handled it well.

“I had students that didn’t have instructions or anything from a teacher,” he said. “So I had to get them ready implementing my classrooms rules, creating that culture, that positive environment that I have in my classroom.”

I loved every bit of working there as a custodian. It really did help me shape going further within the district because I learned how the school district functioned from the foundation up to our principals.

The focus and the energy and the vitality of his class prove he accomplished the task presented to him in September.

But … “It wasn’t something that happened overnight,” he said. “It was something day by day by day, and I’m very verry blessed because my students have adapted so well. They’re the best students considering where they started.”

For many it’s the beginning of something extraordinary and bright. Vanessa Flores, 12, is thankful for the reading strategies Leal taught — and the opportunity to enjoy reading.

“We practiced learning different kinds of things and it helped because haven’t had that when I was younger,” the seventh-grader said. “He taught me more things in this year than I learned in seven years before.”

Colleagues are also impressed.

“He’s a natural,” Instructional Coach Diana Hale said.

“I haven’t had to put in a lot of work with him,” Hale said. “He’s very self reliant. He’s so calm. I’ve never heard him get upset and the students respond well.”

Leal himself gave special thanks to his wife Cynthia Roma, with whom he has a young son.

“She has been my number one support in all this,” he said. “Her and my son have been my motivation through it all.”